Jaleco's Ninja Kazan Is This Week's Arcade Archives Release

Each week these releases make me more and more depressed. Where is raiden.

I'm uncertain how they choose which titles to go after. Possibly what's cheapest. But their selections do introduce me to titles I never experienced in an arcade as a kid. We were all at the mercy of what the local arcades happened to have. Still, I'd value them opening up polls or suggestion forms to fans as so many of our own personal classics aren't getting much love

@sixrings yea! I guess we’re not getting it?? That was announced like last summer! What the heck!!

Top Hunter is on sale right now, in case you want one of their hidden gems. It's a fantastic (yet long forgotten) game.

@rushiosan I bought it too. This game is rad.

Hamster's run of consecutive weeks of releases is very impressive and all, and I realize that many of these old coin-ops would never have seen a home console release otherwise. That said, their catalog to date overwhelmingly consists of titles that are either so obscure that many if not most people (even those of us who were around for the heyday of arcades) were unaware even existed. Worse, that obscurity is all too often the case for a reason, as there's no sugarcoating the reality that many of these games simply aren't very good.

There are still a ton of genuine classic arcade games still waiting for an appearance on Switch (or ANY console), more than enough for Hamster not to have to space them so far apart. We still haven't seen a current-gen Midway collection or proper Neo-Geo compilation (including Neo CD titles like Viewpoint). Sega still has a slew of genuine classics from across the entire history of arcades, ranging from Zaxxon, Congo Bongo, and Pengo to Afterburner to the Model 2 icons like Daytona USA, Daytona USA 2, SCUD Racer, and Virtua Fighter. Namco never released several of their most iconic games, such as Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position, and Xevious.
There are awesome licensed coin-ops to revisit, including the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games, Super Star Wars Arcade, and Marvel vs. Capcom 1 and 2. Even light gun games might finally have a means to return to home screens by utilizing the Switch's JoyCons, such as Time Crisis, the Point Blank series, and House of the Dead.

There's nothing wrong with Hamster helping to preserve every arcade game they can...even the lesser or more obscure ones. But they, M2, and other retro specialists would be doing gamers an immense favor by giving us more of the truly great titles we actually want. Where licensing is an issue, find a way to make it happen. The Switch has been a boon for fans of arcade and retro gaming, but there are still so many deserving titles still out there.

Admittedly probably why we get a lot of Jaleco games is I hear they're pretty cheap to license, and reportedly Hamster owns the Nichibutsu catalog.
(but at least Jaleco games can have that sort of funny-bad weird quality to them)

@rushiosan Is it possible to play as Cathy in 1-player mode?

I might be interested in this game as long as it doesn't play like Magician Lord, but I'm still disappointed every time an announced ACA game isn't Mystic Warriors, Breakers, Bubble Symphony, Brad Garret's Home Run Hitters, Metamorphic Force, Power Instinct, Ninja Baseball Batman, DJ Boy, Martial Masters, Night Warriors: Dark shockers Revenge, Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, X-Men vs Street Fighter, Violent Storm, or one of the TMNT arcade games.
Also, why the hell aren't any of the non-Neo-Geo ones on PC or XBO/Series?

I would buy these games every week if they were 2 bucks each.

Another surprise release. Really, whatever happened to the long list of pending ones?

Besides, I don't find any review of this game. Is it any good?

About license issue games, I think they don't expect to sell that much in this digital form anyway. I know a lot of people who just isn't aware of what Hamster releases or not, so these games never make the Top 20 or 50 list in monthly digital sales. Even when they are good ones.

I guess Hamster just can't afford paying for some licenses with their sales expectations.

I love when they release obscure games, but also think that there are other companies that should be doing something with their licenses.

For instance, why don't they release a Konami MSX Collection? Even in digital form. That has never been done. Why?

I know there have been several Konami arcade titles already on Arcade Archives, but why not Vendetta, Crime Fighters, Metamorphic Force... and by Irem, Ninja Baseball Batman and other beat'em ups without licensing issues?

@DrDaisy Unfortunately, no... unless you start with a player 2 controller I guess. It's the same as Tarma in Metal Slug 1.

@AtlanteanMan Obscure here (they are a Japanese company remember.) Besides, they aren't THAT obscure if you were into video games at the time! They have the rights to so many games that any you are looking forward means you will probably have to be patient.

I assume they just release what they can and that some companies such as Konami and Capcom refuse to let their games be included. I also assume that they plan long term and spread the good games out so that they can continue releasing good games in the years to come. It would be no good to them if they release all the good games first with only crap to come later. Although that would make us happy if they did.

I only buy these games when they are on sale. I can not justify paying full price for them. Although sometimes I find a game on sale that I would have paid full price for if I had been aware of it earlier.

@Bass_X0 how about if they just don’t bother releasing the crap ones?

Of course I realise that “crap” is a subjective opinion, one man’s pleasure is another man’s poison, virtually any game has some nostalgic value to someone somewhere. But do they really recover the costs of getting approval and releasing Crazy Climber 2 or Naughty Boy?

Has the steady stream of underwhelming titles not devalued the brand a little?

Hamster is a small company archiving the arcade catalogue. For anyone wanting the top classics it would be better to drop a line to the owners of them. I myself have done it in hopes I’m not the only voice to these property owners hoarding these old games.

@gaga64 They release one a week every week. I applaud them for doing so even if we do get some crap overpriced games because of it.

I often criticize Hamster's choice of games, but this one looks like a pretty good Shinobi clone.

In case you doubt this is a clone, just go to the 8:15 mark of this video and notice they just copied one of Shinobi's bosses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjOpxCBiK7A&ab_channel=TEMDCF

@Bass_X0 indeed, their dedication and output is truly remarkable. Though I think I personally would be happier with a fortnightly schedule with more consistent quality. I know, I sound entitled and ungrateful.

Every time I see Jaleco come up for these arcade archives, I hope to see them get around to offering Cybattler. Jaleco doesn't have the best reputation for quality, but Cybattler is actually quite good and well made.

@gaga64 Hamster owns Crazy Climber 2 and the entire Nichibutsu library. Releasing games they own outright is pure profit for them as well as an easy way to fill the schedule if they are running behind. Hamster currently holds the world record for weekly releases on the Switch and they are dedicated to keeping that.

@Moroboshi876 Konami released MSX collections on the original Playstation and the Saturn. I'm sure we will see plenty more Konami arcade games from Hamster before long.

@Crazydiamond2112 okay, maybe Crazy Climber was a bad example as they don’t need to license it, but surely there is still some cost involved in making it available on the eshop, and was anyone clamouring for it? How many copies did it sell? (Rhetorical question, I seriously doubt they revealed sales figures for that one)

@Crazydiamond2112 Sure, there have been some, as I said, but it would be nice to have a MSX Collection on Switch too, and some arcade games from the 90s.

More cheaply licensed garbage.

Quarth/Block Hole was released not long ago. It may not be Konami's most well known game, but it's still a nice release.

I suspect that Raiden is being held back for a special occasion like they did with Sunset Riders. Interestingly Hamster released a port of Raiden on the PS1 in Japan back when the company was first starting out. It's still the best home port to date.

@AtlanteanMan good points. Problem is though for any hope to see the Midway/Atari Games classics Hamster would have to strike a deal with Warner Bros who hasn’t done anything with the old games since the Midway Arcade Origins disc on PS3 and 360. Luckily I can play that title on my Xbox One and Series X Thx to BC! As far as Sega goes they had a chance with the Ages line on switch and for whatever stupid reason just ended the line. I was Very disappointed they did that. After Virtua Racing showed up, I had high hopes we were gonna see some real good ones from Sega but nope! 😞

@Bass_X0 Capcom yes but has Hamster has put out quite a few Konami games like Frogger, Scramble, Super Cobra, Contra, Sunset Riders and others
Besides Capcom has their own collection coming up in February. Looking forward to that! 😊

I think Hamster is doing a fabulous job no complaints here. As knowledgeable as I thought I was on the arcade classics, there’s definitely been a few they put out that I never heard of or are turds.
But as far as licensed games like Turtles etc, we will most likely NEVER see most of them ever!
Good thing I have my modded original Xbox, Nes and Snes classic & Genesis mini loaded to the gills with classic arcade games!! 😁

@joey302 I would love for Hamster to take on the Williams/Midway library. Unfortunately the current owner of that IP is AT&T (who aquired Warner Bros) and they seem more likely to burn the company's they aquire to the ground than republish classic content. See DC Comics for an example. I strongly agree with you on Sega Ages. So much wasted potential.

@Moroboshi876 sure seems Scott pilgrim has managed to do just well selling their game digitally. I don’t see why tmnt or any other ip wouldn’t do well. If the ip games had a $5 premium to license them that would be more than fine for me.

@joey302 Sega ages was a disaster. I’d much rather sega just made a deal with hamster. And I would love mortal Kombat, smash tv and gauntlet from midway.

@sixrings I don't know, they must have asked, but maybe those licenses are too difficult to get or too expensive. Or both.

@Moroboshi876 maybe. I can understand what capcom is doing because they have a plan. I can even understand Konami releasing both on hamster and in collections. But segas plan failed so when do they pivot. And I don’t understand the midway plan at all. Even if they think mortal Kombat has value so they want to keep it surely there are other titles they have that they could make some money on. Isn’t some money better than no money.

@Crazydiamond2112 I forgot that AT&T owns Warner! But hopefully with Warner still running their own games division maybe we will get lucky....maybe. Omg don’t even get me started with Sega lol. That ages line could’ve been 50 games easy!! Unbelievable

@sixrings Disney currently owns the IP for many of my most wanted arcade games. I'm sure a great many people would love the chance to buy games like the Simpsons Arcade Game, Marvel vs Capcom 2, or Star Wars Trilogy Arcade at the same price we just paid for Scott Pilgrim. Unfortunately only Arcade 1up seems willing to take the risk on licensed games on a regular basis. I got my Ninja Turtles fix through them.

@sixrings yea Sega baffles the hell out of me! Would be awesome if Sega and hamster can strike an agreement but i don’t see it happening.
My Midway/Atari arcade games wish list is VERY long indeed!! Lol

Probably the most interesting case involving a licensed game is the Popeye arcade game. Popeye's copyright expires in three years at which point Nintendo would no longer have to pay a licensing fee to King Features in order to publish it again. You would think King Features would strike a deal so they make some money while they can, but it has yet to happen.

@joey302 sega had no problem putting their games up on the wii virtual store. So clearly they didn’t need huge amounts of cash per game. Again I’d be perfectly happy being charged a premium. I guess hamster doesn’t want to do that because it opens a whole can of worms of what’s a premium game and what isn’t. But they should figure it out because these are the games I think of when I think of my child hood arcades. Instead what we’re getting is a bunch of games I never heard of before and I grew up with at least four arcades in walking distance from my house.

Why did the neo geo games stop before I got nightmare in the dark?

@joey302 I have a long list of Sega arcade games I would love to have on my Switch. Unfortunately Sega largely chose Genesis, Master System, and puzzle games. Out of 18 games, only six were classic arcade games.

@Crazydiamond2112 I really only need golden axe.

@sixrings Sega would probably mistake the demand and give us the inferior Genesis/Megadrive port yet again instead.

@sixrings I agree! And in case you didn’t know that Switch Genesis collection has 50 games on it and Golden Axe is on there and if I recall Golden Axe II as well.

@Crazydiamond2112 yea who ever put that Ages line up together was drinking lol. We didn’t need 2 Puyo Puyo games for one thing. My Sega wishlist is Huge! After they gave us Virtua Racing, G-Loc & Outrun I thought they would finally give us more recent Sega arcade games! How could they possibly NOT give us:
Crazy Taxi
Virtua Cop 1&2
House of the Dead 1/2/3
Virtua Fighter 2&3
Sega Rally Championship
Daytona USA
Zaxxon
Congo Bongo
Pengo
Virtua Tennis
Power Drift
Afterburner
Scud Racer
Turbo Outrun
Super Hang On
Golden Axe Revenge of Death Adder
And sooo many others! IT JUST DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE!

Is this the same Kazan that was in Brawl Brothers?

@joey302 I won’t get greedy. We’re not getting 3D games at the 2d prices. But there’s plenty of 2d I’d like.

@sixrings yup I agree but I’d pay 10-15 bucks for games like crazy taxi, power drift, sega rally etc. I was actually shocked when Virtua Racing hit for only $8.00!

I don’t want to compare apples to oranges but if Attgames can secure 47 Taito licensed games then why can’t hamster get some top of the line Taito licensed games?

This would be a good starter list:

Operation Wolf
Operation Thunderbolt
Rastan
Cadash